The Texas Politics Project

Everything's bigger in Texas, including the state's Constitution. Today, only Alabama's Constitution is longer. Other states have revised their constitutions to be more concise frameworks of modern government. The Texas Constitution – last rewritten in 1876 but repeatedly amended since then – has morphed into a bloated relic of post-Civil War southern politics.

As the trend line for other states shows, state constitutions early in U.S. history tended to be concise frameworks of government like the U.S. Constitution. In response to conflict surrounding state governments that arose during and after the Civil War, states wrote longer constitutions. But by the late twentieth century, states seeking greater governmental efficiency usually shorted their fundamental law. Texas, however, continues to buck that trend favoring bigger over better.